As a lawyer and politician I believe in our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic, education, social and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

Month: February 2015

In the past, there had been several controversial matrimonial cases due to the conversion to Islam by a non-Muslim spouse in civil marriages.

To this Parti Gerakan National Deputy Youth Chief Andy Yong said “this is particularly so when one spouse (usually the husband) who has converted to Islam without the knowledge of the other. The situation made complicated when the children of the marriage are also being converted to Islam without the knowledge or consent of another parent. Other related controversial issues involved the validity of divorce, maintenance, alimony, burial ceremony and court’s jurisdiction (between civil and Syariah courts) in deciding the dispute”.

It is reported recently that Negeri Sembilan Islamic Religious Council (MAINS) has proposed new regulations such as requiring a non-Muslim to obtain dissolution of marriage from his or her spouse before converting to Islam.

Andy supports the said proposal as this will resolves all previous legal complications when one spouse converted unilaterally. This is especially so in relation to section 51(1) of the Law Reform Act (Marriage and Divorce) 1976 that stipulates “when one party to a marriage has converted to Islam, the other party who has not so converted may petition for divorce” of which there is a lacunae here (which is often the case) when the converted spouse did not inform his or her spouse.

Other related law that is potentially solved too includes Article 12 (4) of the Federal Constitution where it states “…the religion of a person under the age of eighteen years shall be decided by his parent or guardian”. “This particular provision has created legal controversy and dispute in the past as there were different thoughts on the interpretation of “parent” resulting injustice to the non-converting spouse. And if such proposal by MAINS is passed, the civil court may also decide issues involving support, care and custody of the children prior to the conversion ” added Andy.

Lastly Andy agrees that “it will be ideal if other states follow the same proposal by MAINS in order to avoid controversy and most importantly would ensure that Islam would not be ridiculed just because of a wrongdoing of a Muslim convert. This is also to protect the sanctity of Islam”.

The key question: what is Ismail’s motive or intention by referring to Chinese entrepreneurs? Don’t they ever realise or refuse to acknowledge the real problem? We expect our high levels employees to provide solution instead of creating problem not to mention a Minister. Do they actually know the problem or refuse to know it?

Chinese community in Malaysia never controls or intend to control the economy by dominating the urban businesses. Not to mention by hiking prices as alleged though there are some unethical ones.

This entrepreneurial spirit of excellence in Chinese community has helped Malaysia progress well and it has nothing to with causing the miserable state of Malays’ poverty or burden. They are surely not less patriotic. Patriotism is not about carrying or singing national anthem or working for the uniform bodies only.

On the contrary, non-Malays’ contributions toward Malaysia economy have immeasurably helped stabilize our socio-economic development. Tun Mahathir once said: “if we discount the non-Malays’ contribution to the nation economy, Malaysia would be not much better than some of the African developing countries”. With non-Malays, Malaysia becomes better off, not worse off.

Actually successful Malay businessmen as we know, don’t really acquire any entrepreneurial high skills because some people made no genuine effort to nurture hardworking & highly-skilled Malay entrepreneurs. They are many potential ones out there.

Conversely, sometimes the policies and measures introduced has adversely & insidiously cultivated the the “crutch mentality”, which has also atrophied them to be narrow-minded and short-sighted, best exemplified by the unsound statement made by Ismail. Kurup should not have issued a statement to support unless he is certain of the latter’s intention.

Look at it as a Malaysians’ problem and provide a solution instead of such absurd proposal.